Issue 056
November 2009
Another slight, softly spoken Brazilian, who had already captured title belts in Shooto, Cage Rage, Pride and now the UFC, beat Royce Gracie’s record, claiming ten consecutive wins when he knocked out former light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin at UFC 101. With this victory Anderson Silva cemented his claim as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
In comparison to most champions, Silva doesn’t choose his opponents, doesn’t complain about the value of his purse, loves challenging and testing his limits, and doesn’t hesitate to speak his mind – especially when it comes to friendships!
We accompanied him during his daily training routines, talked to his coaches, friends and even opponents, and also recalled his history to give you an understanding of the man who could just be the greatest of all time.
The birth of a champion
Like millions of other Brazilians, Anderson Silva was born into a poor family in the largest city in the country, Sao Paulo. His parents didn’t have enough money to raise him, so at the age of four, he was taken to live with his aunt in Curitiba. It looked like Anderson would follow in his uncle’s footsteps by becoming a police officer until his oldest cousin introduced him to martial arts, taking him to train taekwondo at Master Kang’s gym. “I’ve always been very small, thin, and annoying. In order to hang out with older guys I started to train taekwondo,” recalls Anderson. “I didn’t have the money to pay the gym, so Master Kang allowed me to train if I cleaned the gym.” From that point on, Silva’s destiny was changed.
After eight years training in Kang’s academy, Anderson was taken by his friends to train Muay Thai with Edimar (a black belt under Chute Boxe founder Rudimar Fedrigo), where he stayed for three years. When Edimar moved away from Curitiba, Anderson started training with another disciple of Chute Boxe, Fábio Nogushi, who taught him for seven years. “I got my black belt with him, and also learned a lot as a person and human being,” confesses the champion.
From their first class together, Anderson attracted the attention of Nogushi. “He was born with a natural talent for fighting. Besides learning new techniques very easily, he always had an open mind to every style. If someone from judo came here teaching a throw, he wanted to learn it. If he saw someone doing a new jiu-jitsu submission, he wanted to learn it. That’s how he started to be such a well-rounded fighter,” explains the proud master, who still lives in Curitiba.
Silva’s fast development soon attracted the attention of the leaders at the Chute Boxe headquarters. Anderson had two very tough fights against Fedrigo’s number one pupil, Jose ‘Pelé’ Landi-Jons, in an internal Chute Boxe Muay Thai tournament. Taking one fight apiece Anderson then made his MMA debut, beating three opponents in a tournament. “After I won that tournament, Rafael Cordeiro invited me to train in the Chute Boxe main academy. Since my master Nogushi didn’t have interest in vale tudo (only Muay Thai), I accepted,” recalls Anderson.
Silva started to share his time between working in a McDonald's restaurant in the morning and training at Chute Boxe in the evening, where he became part of Team A - the best fighters of Chute Boxe - with Pelé, Nilson de Castro and Wanderlei Silva. Unfortunately, Anderson wasn’t so lucky in his MMA debut at Meca 1, promoted by Fedrigo. Fighting against Luiz Azeredo (today part of the Chute Boxe team), a jiu-jitsu black belt then from Jorge ‘Macaco’ Patino’s academy, Silva lost by unanimous decision.
Recognizing his weakness he started to train more on his ground skills and the hard work paid off in future editions of Meca where he knocked out more experienced fighters such as Jose Barreto, Claudionor Fontinelli and Israel Albuquerque.
Thanks to these impressive knockouts, Anderson was invited to make his international debut against Tetsuji Kato in Japan in March of 2001. The unanimous decision win guaranteed an invitation to face the Shooto Champion, Hayato ‘Mach’ Sakurai, who was at that point undefeated in MMA. “I knew this fight was a turning point in my career, I knew if I got the championship belt I would have to leave my job in McDonald’s and start to live only to train, just like any professional fighter,” recalls Silva.
To the disappointment of the Japanese audience, Anderson totally dominated the fight and claimed Sakurai’s belt. Anderson brought his fast food career to a conclusion and started to train full-time. “I’ve passed through very hard moments in my life, when I decided to live to train it started to become like a job to me, and I took it very seriously,” he remembers. He began training twice a day, and his opponents could feel the difference. Roan Carneiro (a black belt from the rival Brazilian Top Team) was the first victim in January, 2002, and was destroyed in the first round. Soon after, Anderson received an invitation to fight in Pride against the ‘The Brazilian Killa’, Alex Stiebling.
"Brazilian Killa" killer
By that time Stiebling had beaten six straight Brazilian fighters and stepped into the ring wearing Muay Thai shorts with Brazilian Killa written on the front and ‘Royce Who?’ on the back. Four punches and two kicks (and 17 stitches) stopped the Brazilian Killa’s arrogance. The shamed Stiebling took off the shorts and gave them to Anderson, who posed for his first magazine cover (the Brazilian Tatame) holding the trophy.
After Stiebling, Anderson returned to beat the much heavier Alexander Otsuka, but the final conquest of Japanese fans happened six months later in March 2003 when Anderson knocked out Carlos Newton with a flying knee, an historic moment that is immortalized in a mural on the wall of the Minotauro Training Center.
Three months later Anderson learned in the worst way possible that to be a champion he would have to improve his ground skills. He was submitted by the Japanese fighter Daiju Takase with a triangle choke in his last fight representing Chute Boxe.
From Chute Boxe to Minotauro Team
After his first loss in Pride, Anderson left Chute Boxe citing ‘financial disagreements’ as the reason. In a comparatively quiet period for Silva he went six months without stepping in the ring. “It was the hardest time of my life. I had four children to raise and no money left. Rudimar said to Pride that if they accepted me back, he would take out all of the Chute Boxe fighters from the event. I almost stopped fighting, but thanks to the help of Rodrigo and Rogerio Nogueira my situation totally changed. That’s why I consider them like brothers. They helped in the most difficult moment of my life. I owe everything to them,” says Silva.
Minotauro not only convinced Anderson to continue but also invited him to fight in Conquista Fight, an event promoted by the Nogueira brothers in their home town. After this win, Anderson was brought back by Nogueira to fight on the international scene again. Prohibited from fighting in Pride by the Chute Boxe leader, Anderson went on to fight in Korea and then England.
At the English event, Cage Rage, Anderson started to learn the tricks of fighting in a cage, and captured his second belt by beating the local favorite, Lee Murray, in an historic fight. The Brazilian entered the cage to boos, but left it after three rounds and 15 minutes applauded by an audience brought to their feet. Anderson defended the belt a total of three times (against Curtis Stout, Jorge Rivera and Tony Fyklund). Against Fryklund, Silva landed a reverse upwards elbow that, the opinion of former teammate Pelé, was the most stunning knockout shot ever. “I’ve never seen anyone knock out an opponent with such an elbow. Anderson showed this day that he was the best striker in the MMA world. It was the most beautiful knockout I’ve ever seen.”
Beating all the records
The Fryklund KO caught the attention of the UFC and Anderson began his string of wins in the promotion, beginning with Chris Leben in June 2006. Four months later it was time to fight for the belt, against the reigning champion Rich Franklin, at UFC 64.
Franklin had 18 wins by knockout in 19 fights, and told Anderson that he wouldn’t run from his striking game. “Who wins this fight will not only get the UFC belt, but also the title of the best striker in MMA,” Franklin had said before the fight. Anderson needed only three minutes to answer him. After totally dominating the stand-up fight, the Brazilian knocked out the champion with a sequence of knees. “I’m not used to crying, but that day I couldn’t hold back. It was the biggest day of my career, I’d always dreamed of getting the UFC belt, after so many hard times I finally made my dream come true,” said the new champ.
After beating Franklin, Anderson went on to win all his fights by knockout or submission. No matter if he was using elbows (like against Travis Lutter on UFC 67) or punches (against Nate Marquardt, UFC 73) or knees (in the rematch against Rich Franklin), Anderson reigned absolute in the 185lb division.
Even Dan Henderson, the Pride middleweight champion, tried to claim his title at UFC 82, but was tapped out with a rear naked choke in the second round. “What makes me motivated to train are the challenges, that’s why I want to fight in the 205lb category,” said the champion. Dana White immediately accepted and gave him James Irvin, four months after Henderson, on UFC Fight Night 14. Anderson trained harder and once again impressed the world, beating the light heavyweight in the opening minutes. After that flawless victory, it looked like the Spider started to lose his motivation. For the first time he started to talk about retirement: “I already did everything, my body wants to stop. I will make the last fights of my contract and retire,” guaranteed the champion. In his two following fights, against Patrick Cote (UFC 90) and Thales Leites (UFC 97) Anderson looked less than impressive and, even though he dominated his opponents, was not able to knock them out. The audience, expecting the usual show, did not appreciate it.
The stimulus man
The heavy criticism he received had a strong effect on Anderson. “As I said, I love challenges,” said the champion two weeks before his fight against Forrest Griffin. During this period, we visited his ‘stimulus training’, led by his MMA trainer Josuel Distak, at the X-Gym in Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro. “Anderson is a fighter moved by stimulus, if the fighter gives him provocation he answers with knockouts, and that´s what he will show against Forrest,” promised the trainer.
Anderson worked for two, five-minute rounds with four sparring partners, who took turns attacking the champion in short, thirty-second bursts. During the training his superiority was so clear that he put his hands down a couple of times to work his defensive movements. He allowed his training partners to hit his face a couple of times to train his punch absorption and see how he would react in case of getting dizzy and even got down on a knee (as if knocked down) to train how to stand back up. During this, the trainers would go crazy and started to scream: “Don’t do that! Raise your hands!” But Anderson, always very calm, recovered and finished the training with a clear advantage. “From the place where I came, this was like breakfast,” Anderson commented right after the training.
The results of the training spoke for themselves when he dispatched the former light heavyweight champion in three minutes and 23 seconds.
Shogun, Belfort, Machida or heavyweight?
With Silva’s impressive victory over former champion Griffin, questions now lie over the choice of his next opponent. Already having beaten the top contenders in the 185lb division (Marquardt and Henderson), who could provide a challenge to, and motivation for, ‘The Spider’? UFC boss Dana White sees three Brazilians, all ex-training partners of Anderson, being able to give him a hard time: Two in the 205lb division (Lyoto Machida and Shogun Rua), and one in the 185lb category (Vitor Belfort).
As for fighting the 205lb champion Lyoto Machida, Anderson doesn’t see any chance because they are close friends. “There isn’t that possibility. I’m Lyoto’s friend, I like him a lot, and I think it’s hard for anyone to beat him. There is no money that will make me fight him. Dana White can forget about that, I’m very happy with my belt, I don’t need more belts,” he says.
If Shogun beats Machida at UFC 104, Dana may want to put Anderson forward for the belt as Anderson has no relationship with Shogun.
The entrance of Vitor Belfort in his division does not meet the approval of the champion. “Which Vitor is that? The one who trained with me, Rogerio and Rodrigo a few months ago? Maybe he will want to fight Rodrigo or Rogerio even training with them. I think Vitor has to find himself, he is totally lost,” spits Silva.
But if more money and more belts don’t attract Anderson´s attention, what can make him motivated? His best friend and right-hand man, Giorge Martins, the man who takes care of his entire life (from financial matters to his training) has no doubt: “Just bring him new challenges, then you will be able to see the best Anderson Silva, like in the fight against Forrest Griffin,” explains Giorge. “He clearly beat those guys (Henderson and Marquardt), I think he would be much more motivated to train if the UFC create new challenges, like they did with Forrest Griffin,” said Martins.
Silva vs. Silva
During their time together at Chute Boxe, Anderson and Wanderlei Silva had always been close friends and great sparring partners, but after Anderson left and Rudimar used Wanderlei’s reputation and status in Japan to prevent Anderson’s return to Pride, Anderson became upset that Wanderlei didn’t defend him. “He knew I had four children to raise and that I was going through hard times, but he accepted that Rudimar used his name to prevent my return to Pride. If it were not for Minotauro I would have to retire from the ring to work,” said Anderson. But right after Wanderlei’s return to the UFC fight against Liddell, Anderson showed that he had no hard feelings and went to Wand’s changing room together with Lyoto Machida to congratulate him on the amazing fight. Happy with Anderson´s attitude, Wand even invited him to train saying, “Now I´m free”.
Everything was fine until the moment Wanderlei decided to move to middleweight, and Anderson declared to Brazilian TV program Sensei Sportv, that Wanderlei was “looking for trouble”. Right after the program was aired, Wanderlei answered on the Brazilian website Tatame.com “I thought it was excellent being mentioned by the champion, without having had any fights in this category. It´s a sign that I´m already bothering him. Nobody kicks a tree that is not able to give fruits,” said Wanderlei. “He is too cocky, I never said anything bad about him, I always respected him. He has always been my friend, and always respected me, but now he comes out with that statement, I can´t understand that. I didn’t come down to 185lb to face him, actually I didn´t have that intention, to change category and already fight the champion would be too pretentious from myself. I think the war is declared. We will see if he will be able to do everything he says, because, eye to eye, he knows who the real Silva is. Until today nobody has given him a hard time, nobody has beaten his face badly. I believe the future is pretty promising, let’s wait and see.” It appeared that the battle lines had been drawn.
After Wanderlei’s statement, Anderson made clear that his statements had been misinterpreted by both his former training partner and the Brazilian press. “I always respected him a lot as a friend and training partner, I always cheer for him in his fights and I never wanted to fight against him,” said Anderson. The situation was clarified backstage at UFC 102 in Portland when, by coincidence, they went to the same restaurant. Wanderlei’s strength and conditioning trainer Rafael Alejarra brought Anderson to talk to Wand. “I said ‘you guys are real friends, it´s pretty clear that there is some sort of misunderstanding’. They talked, hugged and even cried,” says Alejarra, who believed the two could train again in the future. Anderson is purse-lipped about the episode “As I said, nothing ever happened between us. Wanderlei is crazy,” he laughed. “He knows all my faults and strengths, and I know his talent – we’re together. Wanderlei is amazing.”
Brock Lesnar?
With Silva being set against fighting Machida he see challenges in another weight division - heavyweight. “As I told you I love challenges, that´s what motivates me to train. Of course heavyweight is the category of Minotauro, and I just have an interest in fighting a super fight, once. In this category, my chances of getting seriously hurt increase,” explains the champion. So could a super fight with Brock Lesnar be a possibility? “Oh no, I wouldn’t be so pretentious as to fight the champion.”
Undefeated for almost five years, Anderson is not worried about the possibility of losing. “Sometime, someone will beat me, that’s a fact. Someone will end up catching my arm, my foot and submitting me – this will happen, that´s for sure. If I retire before it happens, that´s fine. But I want all the people to know that I´m prepared for anything. I’m training hard to not get hurt, but somebody will beat me, that’s for sure. Is there anyone better than me? For sure, but we don’t know where he is,” declares the champion. But according to Giorge, Anderson works very hard not to allow it to happen. “Sometimes he trains so hard that I have to tease him about time. I tell him 10 minutes, but it´s only eight. He needs to understand that his body is not a machine, when I know he is tired I do that to avoid him getting hurt,” he explains.
On Roy Jones Jr.
Most people don’t understand why Silva, the best pound-for-pound MMA fighter in the world, wants so much to fight Roy Jones Jr., a faded legend in boxing. The champion himself tries to explain: “I´ve always seen his fights and I admire his style so much, it would be an honor for me to fight such a legend under his rules. I have this project and after my contract with the UFC finishes, I will do this fight against him, I want to do it, it’s a personal wish. Actually he had already said that he is ready to face me even in MMA rules” insists the UFC champion.
Retirement?
What most people can’t understand is why a fighter in the best period of his career, after beating all the records of UFC, can think about retirement. “I have four more fights on the contract, and then I want to stop. I just think my time has come, I trained all my life and now I feel that my body and my mind wants to stay with my family,” explains the champ, who guarantees that not even a offer of millions from Dana White would change his mind. “The big boss (Dana) cannot give orders to my body, to my feelings and to my reflexes. My body and mind are saying it´s time to stop and I´ll obey them. It is nothing to do with money, I´m a very humble person who has an ordinary life. Actually I never did it for money. Everything I could do for MMA I already did. Now it´s time to help the new generation, guys like Andre Galvão, Feijão, Dan Dan, Pitbull. Now we have to help those newcomers. In a few years I´m going to be fat, with a big belly by the side of the Octagon, eating popcorn behind the scenes, doing my impressions and screaming for the fighters: ‘Kick his face! Put him down!’ It’s going to be really funny!” he says. And that’s how the greatest champion in UFC history says he plans to end his career. But is he being serious? With Silva, you never quite know.
If Shogun beats Lyoto at UFC 104, Dana may want to put Anderson forward for the belt as Anderson has no relationship with Shogun.
The entrance of Vitor Belfort in his division does not meet the approval of the champion. “Which Vitor is that? The one who trained with me, Rogerio and Rodrigo a few months ago? Maybe he will want to fight Rodrigo or Rogerio even training with them. I think Vitor has to find himself, he is totally lost,” spits Silva.
But if more money and more belts don’t attract Anderson’s attention, what can make him motivated? His best friend and right-hand man, Giorge Martins, the man who takes care of his entire life (from financial matters to his training) has no doubt: “Just bring him new challenges, then you will be able to see the best Anderson Silva, like in the fight against Forrest Griffin,” explains Giorge. “He clearly beat those guys (Henderson and Marquardt), I think he would be much more motivated to train if the UFC create new challenges, like they did with Forrest Griffin,” said Martins.
An idol’s idol
Anderson Silva is a huge fan of the deceased ‘King of Pop’ Michael Jackson. As he explains, “I grew up imitating his movements, Michael is part of my history, he was like an idol to me. He influenced my life and probably my style of fighting. I even had a big poster of him in my room. When I found out about his death I cried and was really depressed for two days... Once, I was arriving in Las Vegas airport and he was there and my manager took me to take a picture with him, but I thought he was kidding. I thought the guy was one of those lookalikes who stand around inviting people to the shows. It took some hours to believe that I really shook Michael’s hand.”
Impressions of Anderson
“Besides being a great person and friend, Anderson is a complete fighter and he showed that in his last fight against Forrest. He was evasive just like Muhammad Ali, moving the head, and he knocked Griffin out walking backwards. There are few boxers in the world that are able to do that.” – Rodrigo Minotauro Nogueira
“Anderson Silva is a showman. The impression I have when he fights is that he is so superior to his opponent that he will decide the fight whenever he wants to. My son is improving a lot, one day he will reach that point of giving a show to the audience.” – Yoshizo Machida, father of Lyoto Machida
“I have no doubt he is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. I’ve never seen anything in MMA like what he did against Forrest. He made him look like a beginner.” – Thales Leites (former opponent)
“I’m a striker, and being American I have the opportunity to train with some of the best strikers in the world. I never trained jiu-jitsu with Rickson Gracie, but after training with Anderson I can tell he is like the Rickson Gracie of MMA. He is really special, he hits you in certain points that you are not used to, after that he doesn’t need to hit you so much because you get worried, so he just makes some movements. Besides using his range very well, he also flows very well in the ring, creating angles. You never know what he will do and he gets you lost all the time. He is totally unpredictable.” – Chris Wilson (UFC fighter who trains with Minotauro Team)
“Anderson has a more superior game than all other fighters. He is very calm and technical during the fight. I don’t see anybody beating him today.” – Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua
The Passion for police
“Nunca serão, jamais serão.” – “Never ever will be.”
“I grew up in a family where all the men were police; I grew up dreaming of becoming a police officer,” explained Silva. One week before his second fight with Rich Franklin, he received a special invitation to visit the headquarters of the Elite Troop in Rio de Janeiro. “Every Brazilian should be proud of BOPE, it’s the only troop in the world that is trained to combat the heavily-armed drug dealers on the top of the slum-filled hills of Rio,” said Anderson.
Since the visit, Silva always gives homage to BOPE officers after his wins: “Nunca serão, jamais serão”.
